Editorial
If Yemen Falls, so Does the Dollar Reserve?
How is it that the world's fortunes hang on the life or death of a murderous thug that the US has been supporting for 30 years? And why, in fact, if Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh is so important, isn't it common knowledge? Saleh was wounded yesterday when opposition forces blew up his palace. But as I'll discuss, below, there's more to the story. (Isn't there always?)
In my opinion, this story is so big it should be on the front pages of the New York Times and The Wall Street Journal: "US dollar hegemony hangs in the balance." Or how's this: "Future of the world's monetary system may be decided in Yemen's Sana’a."
How can one silly, little and desperately poor country full of people in ankle-length white robes be in the position to shake the foundations of the current monetary system of the Anglo-American empire?
First, context. It hasn't been a good year for the West's power elite. Yemen is only one country in tumult. Other countries verging on civil war are Bahrain and Syria. (Libya is already convulsed.) But in fact there are hundreds of places in the Middle East, Africa and Europe now where people are demonstrating and marching – or fighting with various levels of efficiency and organization.
In Afghanistan, the Obama administration is said to be desperately searching for Mullah Omar, the one-eyed leader of the Taliban, now and again reported dead or missing. US officials, in turn, wish to find Omar so that they can work out a deal where the US declares victory and Omar retains the territory. Some victory.
Libya is currently in a stalemate; China is Pakistan's new best friend; Pakistan's generals are again denying what Ms. Hillary Clinton – US Secretary of State – said only a week ago, that the Pakistan army was about to launch a significant attack against the Pashtun/Taliban. It's not true, the generals say.
Meanwhile, Egypt's youths sleep on the streets; Tunisian youth are no happier; Iran is gaining considerable regional influence because of the "color revolutions" that the CIA apparently triggered. Iraq is destabilizing again, and even the Palestinians are resurgent.
The Arab Awakening is truly a regional if not global phenomenon. Of course, we have our own name for it: The Internet Reformation. It's really the same thing. Just as the Gutenberg press spawned the Renaissance and Reformation, so the Internet has now spawned a truly significant social convulsion. The world will never be the same.
America's CIA-sponsored AYM youth movements were behind the initial color revolutions. But notice how the mainstream press has stopped celebrating them. Perhaps they haven't worked out as planned. Either Western elites are encouraging a series of Arab Islamic Republics (so as to buttress what seems to be an essentially phony "war on terror") or they are trying to create controllable regulatory democracies that will likely be run by dependable militaries with a constitutional façade. Neither of these options looks to be feasible in the near term.
Alternatively, the West seeks generalized chaos for some reason – or, more intriguingly, it has simply lost control of the situation. As we've stated before, Yemen is important because it may well indicate how much control the West actually has over the Arab Awakening. So far, what's been most apparent is dithering. The West hasn't shown a firm hand. There are reasons why.
Yemen may be spinning out of Western control. After Saleh was wounded, he was quoted as saying, "I salute our armed forces and the security forces for standing up firmly to confront this challenge by an outlaw gang that has nothing to do with the so-called youth revolution." It's interesting that the words Saleh used were "outlaw gang" as the tribal opposition to his rule denied making the attack. Apparently, it was what one might call "an inside job."
That means that individuals nominally allied with Saleh tried to knock him off. And why not? He is a thoroughly despicable man. He has ruled Yemen for about 30 years through a mixture of truculence and torture; like Gaddaffi, his favorite method of staying in power is one of "divide and conquer" in which he set various tribes against each other.
Yup ... Yemen is another "tribal backwater" like Afghanistan – a place where the Anglo-American elite (exaggeratedly) has no interest. It is like a kid kicking a stone past the house of a pretty girl. He just happened along the way ... and thus the US just "happened' into Afghanistan and Iraq. In fact, the US is intensely interested – mesmerized in a kind of Ted Bundy (bad) way.
How seriously does the Anglo-American empire take Afghanistan (as a speed-bump on the way to world government)? Try, probably, say ... US$2 trillion in expenditures, thousands killed and tens of thousands wounded. True the total all-in cost hasn't been as much as Vietnam (50,000 dead and 500,000 wounded) but there's considerable evidence that the US has been undercounting the dead and wounded through a variety of manipulations.
Yemen has never presented the same kind of problem as Afghanistan. In part that's because Yemen is even more difficult to subdue militarily than the stiff-necked Pashtun Taliban. The West has wanted as little to do with Yemen as possible (outside of controlling the coastline). Here's a description of Yemen by Paul Holmes of the New Zealand Post in a recent article entitled "Cry, cry and cry again for my beloved Yemen."
So now my beloved Yemen is on the verge of going up in flames, on the verge of a cataclysmic civil war. I say "my beloved" because I had such an extraordinary time there on an Intrepid Journey a few years back Not a lot of people actually know where Yemen is. I don't think I really did until I checked a map before we went there. It is essentially the bottom left portion of the Arabian Peninsula. And what I certainly didn't realise about the entire Arabian Peninsula is that a massive mountain range runs north to south down its western side, sloping down eventually to the Red Sea.
In fact, the Saudis move their capital up to the mountains, to Taif, during the ferocious Arabian summers. The Yemeni capital Sana'a sits in this same mountain range. The thing about Yemen is the architecture. There is nothing like it in the world. They seem to have engineering in their genes. They built skyscrapers when no one was doing it.
Osama Bin Laden's father, who got rich building roads in Saudi Arabia, was Yemeni. He got so rich he rebuilt the mosque at Mecca with his own money. Old Man bin Laden came from one of the most spectacular parts of the world I have ever seen, the Wadi Hadromaut. It is probably as vast and as breathtaking as the Grand Canyon. And all through this great and ancient valley are villages perched on high, impossible sites, above steep cliffs, and you look at them and marvel because they have been there hundreds and hundreds of years.
How in God's name did they do that, you find yourself asking time and again, round every corner. It's the same through the entire country, especially in that great mountain range, villages with slim, square buildings six or seven storeys on the most unreachable ridges and peaks. And, of course, that was the point. Defensively, they are brilliantly sited. The truth is, neither the Turks - of whom there are still some 10,000 in Yemen - nor the British ever really conquered anywhere but the Yemeni coast. You couldn't get near those mountain villages. The Yemenis simply rolled great rocks down on you.
As Afghanistan is the key to Middle Asia, so Yemen is the key to "Arabia." The tribes of Oman and the Arab Emirates flowed out of Yemen. And today Yemen is no less important than before in terms of the Great Game. It is perched on the edge of one of the most important waterways in the world and fronts the soft underbelly of Saudi Arabia – the part where many of the most profitable oil wells are located.
Yemen is formidable, and strangely important. But because of the mountains, because of the tribes, because of the weaponry (three rifles for every Yemeni), because boys are expected to be proficient with weapons from an early age, Yemen has not been high on the list of the Anglosphere's "civilizing" influences.
Ironically, the Yemenis are very similar culturally to the Somalis – from the same Somalia that Western newscasters like to call a failed state. (A failed state is any country that stands in the way of the West's dash toward One World Government.)
What Western mainstream media isn't bothering to report, however, is that the Anglo-American power elite could already have done away with Saleh if it wanted to. He's their man and has been for all of his violent existence. It is reprehensible that that Western elites would rather let Yemen drift into civil war than cease to support Saleh. There have been no moves made in the UN to put pressure on Saleh, no sanctions – only apparently regular ammo and tear gas refills, which he has used to slaughter hundreds of Yemenis.
The Western elites have not moved to do away with Saleh because they cannot apparently find a thug to put in his place that will garner a modicum of tribal support. The result of all this is growing antipathy. Possibly, because Yemen is another funny "impoverished backwater," the US has handled the Yemen very badly. The whole country is inflamed. Saleh, now wounded, will likely never get his power back and the chances that the CIA will have the opportunity to create a new Saleh are growing slimmer by the minute.
The Saudis worked desperately to move Saleh out of power. It is easy to see why now; that was their leverage. But now the nightmare scenario has occurred: increasingly the Saudis are perceived as propping Saleh up (which they are doing actually by not removing him). Ultimately all this returns to the US and the Pentagon, which in turn does the bidding of the City of London. So, here is the answer to the question asked at the beginning of this article. The answer is ...
SAUDI ARABIA!
The corrupt and vicious Saudi regime lies at the heart of Money Power. Without Saudi willingness to support the continued dollar-oil exchange (forcing the rest of the world to hold dollars) the dollar reserve currency system seriously degrades.
The current system was put in place in the 1940s, but it was elaborated on in 1971, when the US severed the last link between gold and the dollar and substituted oil. How did the Anglosphere elites manage this trick? Using Mao's observation: "power springs from the barrel of a gun."
The Saudis were willing accomplices, but in reality they didn't have a choice. The world's economy, when you come down to it, is a product of American military force. Use the dollar to buy oil or else ... But if the US and Saudi Arabia cannot control the spiraling disaster in Yemen, the next stop on the revolutionary train is Bahrain. And after that ... Saudi Arabia. And THIS time, events may not be easily salvageable. The Internet has educated the Arab world about its history.
If the Anglosphere elites had only used their tremendous industrial and monetary advantages to build a free-market instead of a phony one (disguised as a free one)! But the elites chose to propagate a central banking economy in order to chase after world government, and now they are in danger of an eroding dollar reserve, which could eventually result in the creation of an entirely new (and uncontrollable) currency. Anyway, if Saudi Arabia falls, the dominoes may simply keep tumbling. Who pays any attention to funny little countries like Yemen anyway?
Editor's Note: Last evening, Anthony Wile was interviewed by Russia Today's Bill Dodd on the media hysteria surrounding the current "Cuke Crisis." Click here to watch: Anthony Wile: Bacteria Hysteria Fanned by WHO Propaganda Machine.
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Posted by Pip on 07/31/11 05:23 AM
All one has to do is come up with a cheap alternative to oil & they can all return to their camels & sand dunes!
Oh! Let it happen sooooooon, Lord!
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Posted by Gordon Barlow on 06/07/11 10:10 AM
As a longtime - if irregular - reader and fan of DB, I know you are on the side of the angels. Still, I'm enough of a cynic to be always on the alert for backsliding. Hang in there, chaps...!
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Posted by Reader on 06/07/11 04:26 AM
If ANY nation were to risk the use of a Nuclear weapon, the logical outcome for that nation is utter condemnation if not damnation.
That is why we see the United States, Israel, NATO countries, etc are for all practical purposes hostages to their OWN N-Weapons.
I doubt their politicians can wrap their heads around that.
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Posted by Gordon Barlow on 06/06/11 11:39 PM
"How seriously does the Anglo-American empire take Afghanistan (as a speed-bump on the way to world government)? Try, probably, say ... US$2 trillion in expenditures, thousands killed and tens of thousands wounded. True the total all-in cost hasn't been as much as Vietnam (50,000 dead and 500,000 wounded)..."
Uhhh, DB, I wish you hadn't counted only the US casualties. It trivialises the million people killed and mutilated in Iraq and Afghanistan as a result of the US invasions, and the two or three million Vietnamese and Cambodian citizens dead and mutilated from the US invasions there. Sad as they were, the American numbers are only a drop in the ocean. Let's not forget that.
Reply from The Daily Bell
Gee, we've only mentioned the millions killed, irradiated, mutilated hundreds of times on this site. Do we have to mention it like a mantra? Are we responsible for every person who drops by and only reads ONE article and never bothers to go through our back files? Come on ....
Also ... If you read the comment in context, there is a reason to mention the West's cost. We are writing about what the WEST is willing to tolerate on the path to world governance.
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Posted by MetaCynic on 06/06/11 07:55 PM
Few political and intellectual elites, if any, would have thought at the widely celebrated beginning of that conflict, that WW1 would herald the death of powerful empires and mark the end of a storied golden age in Europe. Who would have believed in 1900 that that coming war, whose reverberations torment the world to this day, would usher in a century of murderous hyper-states and endless war on an unimagined scale?
It's fascinating how unwelcome, unintended consequences have a way of emerging to gum up the PE's ambitious plans once events spin out of control. One would think that even a passing acquaintance with the history of wars and social unrest would induce a measure of caution and humility in these people. Yet ego and the thirst for power and wealth have once again triggered overtly reckless behavior.
Once again they are playing at the game of provoking social unrest over legitimate grievances, this time in the Middle East, in order to channel people's passions toward PE acceptable outcomes. And once again things will likely spin out of control when the dogs of war are unleashed in order to preserve the PE's fiat money monopoly. What kind of hubris allows these people to have no fear of nuclear weapons?
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Posted by Reader on 06/06/11 03:24 PM
Who in London or Berlin has the oats or mental bandwidth to confront/control what is happening in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, Egypt, Libya and God knows where next? The truth may be that no one is in control - this being a CONTAGION of such duration and scope that even the destiny of israel and Saudi Arabia appear at stake. (Hint: the US has lost all influence in the region.) If I was Muslim soothsayer, I would warn that Tunisian Mohammed Bouazizi unleashed one hell of a GENIE when he set himself on fire. But, inshallah, it will end, his point being made And taken into account.
Reply from The Daily Bell
Yes, it seems to be spinning out of control. On the other, what if Western elites have decided to set up a regional nuclear war between Israel and the rest of the Middle East? Then chaos suits the game ... It is a horrible thought, of course, and we can hardly credence that anglo-elites would have this in mind. But nonetheless, it reoccurs ... See this today ...
Click to view link
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Posted by Warren on 06/06/11 10:12 AM
[i]Here's a description of Yemen by Paul Herman of the New Zealand Post in a recent article entitled "Cry, cry and cry again for my beloved Yemen.[/i]
Article is here http://www.nzherald.co.nz/paul-holmes-on-new-zealand/news/article.cfm?c_id=1502869&objectid=10730062
Reply from The Daily Bell
Thanks, for the update.
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Posted by isalcordo on 06/06/11 09:18 AM
Thanks you for the links. The second link gave me the fullest briefing I could ever wish on the roots of the ills of America, its history, wars, economy, federal reserve, the level of literacy of the American public on those issues, and the subservience of US politicians to the international banking elites and their fractional banking system.
Again, thanks.
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Posted by free on 06/05/11 08:21 PM
There is a great many domino's in the middle and far east, But the fact of the matter is the US and Saudi royal family are pieces of a chess board being played out from london. There is shift happening and there will be fallout. There is a lot a stake and the reformation is underway and these transitions are new pretty. .
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Posted by Summer on 06/05/11 01:14 PM
Scary war mongering brown people. Beware! They are so so sinister and they could cause... maybe several wars and ummm even kill people! Those weirdos!
The cat is stroked, what shall we do about them, hmmm... Plot plot, hatch hatch, it thickens... perhaps unleash some killer cukes?
What about 'nut cases' with nukes - US or Israel, what could those crazies do??? Westernized with sharp looking suits - thus a different kettle of fish!?
Watch out Iran your next on the 'axis' list!
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Posted by Hugh on 06/05/11 12:06 PM
DB:
Is it possible that BHO is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood; has his own agenda and will throw The City of London under the bus?
Click to view link
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Posted by Hugh on 06/05/11 11:25 AM
Attention elves and gnomes! I would really like to hear from all of you after you have listened to this. I cannot wait...
Click to view link
Reply from The Daily Bell
Well, it sounds plausible and is good investigative reporting no matter what. Puts the mainstream to shame. What is almost as strange as the story is that there are 30 comments but only 800 views. Is it possible that Youtube could have been tampering with the ratio? Why would they do such a thing?
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Posted by Summer on 06/05/11 09:36 AM
DB:'Ironically, the Yemenis are very similar culturally to the Somalis - from the same Somalia that Western newscasters like to call a failed state. (A failed state is any country that stands in the way of the West's dash toward One World Government.)'
So true.
If 'Muslim' countries stood together against Zio-Western Elites, no one would be able to 'touch them'. Shame.
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Posted by Wayne on 06/04/11 11:07 PM
"Will the nut cases in Iran get nukes also?'
Only if they can get them away from Dick Cheney!
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Posted by Wayne on 06/04/11 10:56 PM
Well, if you can get rid of the FED for us, I guarantee that you will get a lot of converts to Islam. But the IRS has to go along with the FED.
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Posted by Wayne on 06/04/11 10:52 PM
"The international 'monetary' system is still based on co-operation, even if it's of a disingenuous kind.'
When has organized crime not cooperated in sharing the loot?
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Posted by Justin on 06/04/11 08:44 PM
Yes DB, I think. The 'system' has lasted 40 years now since the US government defaulted on its obligations. While there is certainly volatility, the USD 'standard' has lasted almost an entire generation, not bad going.
Your Saudi centric/coercive view is simplistic. And regards your link, here is a better one:
Click to view link
The international 'monetary' system is still based on co-operation, even if it's of a disingenuous kind.
Reply from The Daily Bell
A certain volatility! You mean because the US dollar has lost some 95-plus percent of its value over the past century (since the advent of the Federal Reserve)?
The modern international monetary system has lasted 40 years; a monetary system featuring links to gold and silver has been a feature of human existence for thousands if not tens of thousands of years, or even longer.
The Chinese had a word for the fiat money (as the Chinese experienced eight ruinous cycles of fiat money inflation in their history). They called it "flying money." An appropriate nomenclature.
You are welcome to believe in fiat money (it's not "bad going") and all the ruin it causes. Divest yourself of gold and silver. Buy dollars! Good luck...
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Posted by Bischoff on 06/04/11 06:34 PM
There is no doubt that the value of the USD/FRN is derived from the fact that Saudi Arabia, as the marginal cost producer, will quote the price of crude oil only in USD/FRN. For doing so, the Anglo-American elite has to recipricate. Providing the Saudi families with military security is no doubt one of the obligations they assumed.
However, it isn't alone a breakdown in providing military security which will unravel the deal with the Saudis. The proliferation of USD/FRN through TARP, QE1 and QE2 has already put the promise by the Saudis to sell oil only for USD/FRNs very much into question.
No doubt, the unrest in Yemen does not help the future disposition of the USD/FRN.
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Posted by scousekraut on 06/04/11 01:11 PM
Very interesting. Sounds like Yemen would be a great country to visit in normal circumstances.
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Posted by Frank on 06/04/11 11:55 AM
Boehner should be removed as Speaker of the House. He is a wimp. He has failed miserably to make significant budget cuts or uphold the Constitution or assert Congressional power against an out of control, tyrannical Executive branch of government. With a socialist Democratic Party & a Republican Party full of RINOs & wimps, the USA has no hope to survive destruction.
What will the West do when Yemen crumbles and a militant Islamist state is created that could target oil tankers passing by a critical choke point? What are we doing in Libya? What will happen to Pakistani nukes? Will the nut cases in Iran get nukes also?
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